Spoilers as aide-memoire. Themes and a development in the story arc. The "one-drop rule" meaning that someone who had any remote African ancestor was "colored", without civil rights even if free -- no voting, not a citizen, not able to testify in court -- had huge repercussions for people who may not have even known that a parent was "passe-blanc". This was a family secret that could ruin lives. And also, we learn Hannibal's back story. ( )

I've always liked this series a lot, but apparently got out of the habit of periodically checking for new ones, because now there are like twelve or some crazy number, and I was a bit behind.

The broad strokes of the series are that you have this guy who is a free person of color in New Orleans at the beginning of the 19th century, so that is the part that brings in a lot of interesting social and historical information, and he solves murders, in a fairly straightforward yet pleasant genre murder mystery way.

The first few books felt very realistic, well, as realistic as books about someone who solves murders in his spare time are likely to be, in that all the situations felt very reasonable, like you could believe that one person would be positioned to experience these things.

At some point, it got a little Forrest Gump-y, in that somehow this guy is now encountering every possible confluence of political events that result in murders, like all the time. But by then, I had bought into this series and that was fine, really. For light-ish reading, I have no problem with that. What happens in this one? Visiting Irish aristocrats get caught up in a murder in New Orleans (duh). ( )

It's been far
too long since DEAD WATER, but here is a new book (and a new
publisher) for Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January.

It's late summer (that is, about now) in New Orleans in 1836. January,
a free man of color, trained as a physician in Paris but has been
making his living as a musician since returning to New Orleans. As the
story opens, he's playing in the funeral band for a fellow musician.
Also playing is fiddler Hannibal Sefton, the only white man in New
Orleans who treats January as an equal; Sefton is an Anglo-Irish
alcoholic and opium addict. As the coffin is being borne to the tomb,
one of the pallbearers, too drunk and too short to carry his load
reliably, stumbles -- the coffin breaks open -- and out tumbles the
corpse of a white man. Sefton recognizes the corpse and is both
surprised and grief-stricken.

Mystery piles upon mystery. Who killed Patrick Derryhick and switched
the corpses? Why were a group of upper-class Anglo-Irishmen, including
a young Viscount, in New Orleans during fever season, when all
upper-class whites had fled to cooler and healthier homes? Questions
of identity come up again and again. The plot is entirely believable,
but full of twists, turns, and terror, especially when January must
travel alone upriver to further his investigations.

Barbara Hambly writes fine historical fiction, seamlessly imparting
necessary information about a place and time usually dismissed quickly
as "ante-bellum" in our high school history classes. We see how the
Louisiana Purchase, even decades on, affects white, mixed-race, and
black people in Louisiana and the nearby areas.

Hambly shares with Kris Nelscott and Susan Straight an uncanny ability
to put the reader inside the head and heart of a character of a
different race and gender from herself. By now, I feel I know Benjamin
January and can feel at least something of what it was like to be him.

Hambly's love for New Orleans and Louisiana comes out not only in her
characters, but in her description of the places, the sights, sounds,
and smells. At one moment she can turn your stomach by evoking the
stench of the Calaboso (jail); at another you can almost taste the
fresh beignets and coffee at a local cafe.

This is one series that I would urge reading from the beginning (A
FREE MAN OF COLOR), although each book can stand on its own. There are
revelations about one character in DEAD AND BURIED which might affect
your appreciation of the earlier books if you were to read this one
first. But wherever you start, don't miss this excellent series. Need
I say -- highly recommended. ( )

I was so happy to get reacquainted with Benjamin January and 19th-century New Orleans. It's always fascinating to learn about the shifting rules of society among the different groups of people who lived there whether influenced by French, Spanish, Caribbean, African, or American government and mores. Barbara Hambly always does her research and manages to bring the 1830s to life in full-color. Plus, we get to learn a little more about mysterious Hannibal's history this time. ( )

After a dry spell of several years, Barbara Hambly has published two new Benjamin January mysteries in the past two years. I read this one out of sequence, reading the most recent book, The Shirt on His Back, first & finding it a disappointment. With Dead and Buried however, Ms. Hambly is back in true form with a tour du force of a story combining a murder, long buried family secrets and misogyny in pre-Civil War New Orleans with the series fans finally finding out who Hannibal Sefton really is at the end of the book as a special lagniappe for her dedicated readers.

I only hope that this series goes on and on. ( )